Darkest Nightmare, Sweetest Dream
by OneShotWonderment
Summary: There are some things about Ian's experience with the Rooks that he wishes he could forget.


**_Title:_ **Darkest Nightmare, Sweetest Dream

**_Author:_ **OneShotWonderment

**_Pairing(s):_ **Gabe/Ian & one-sided Jeremy/Ian…kind of.

**_Rating:_** R for language

**_Summary:_** There are some things about Ian's experience with the Rooks that he wishes he could forget. Takes place in the middle of 1x05 "The Rooks" after the scene with Gabe in a skirt.

**_Notes/Warnings:_**Thanks to dragons_rage598 for the amazing beta job and piesek for the promt at smallfandomfest!

_Italics_ is thoughts or emphasis…you'll get the hang of it!

* * *

_Gabe. _Gabe wanted to be a Rook. Gabe who couldn't do this alone, not really. Gabe who Ian would not let do this alone. This initiation was brutal; no one could handle it alone.

_Gabe, _Ian reminded himself as he threw another load of Jeremy's laundry into the well-used machine. He hated this. He did not even want to be a Rook. He should be using his time to help CJ, Gabe and Suki develop an escape plan, not washing the laundry of some stuck up snob.

"Squab!" Ian turned around as Jeremy walked up to him. There was something unsettling about the elder student. Ian knew better than to turn his back on an enemy and Jeremy was certainly his enemy.

"Yes, Most Exalted One?" He made his tone polite, but did not lower his eyes as the others did. He did not respect Jeremy enough for that. Truth be told, there weren't many people that Ian did respect enough to concede ground by lowering his eyes.

"Have you finished with my laundry yet?"

"I just put the final load in the dryer….Most Exalted One."

"Good." There was more to that small statement. Ian could hear it, but couldn't find anything in the elder's expression to explain it. He wished, for once, that he had CJ's ability. The whole initiation thing put him ill at ease and the ability to read people would have been really nice. "I have your next task for you."

It was always task after task with the Rooks. There were no breaks and no point in time when any of the newcomers could relax. As it were, Ian was about two days behind on all of his homework and in desperate need of sleep. His patience with the whole thing was wearing impossibly thin. The only thought that had truly gotten him through this far was the image his mind conjured up about how bright Gabe's smile would be when they became Rooks and he focused on that once more as he replied to Jeremy's blanket statement.

"What would you like me do next, Most Exalted One?"

"Blow me." Before Ian's tired brain could even begin to comprehend that command, Jeremy was forcing Ian to his knees in front of the dryer. The elder's hands remained on Ian's shoulders as if to hold him there by their sheer presence.

_This is illegal,_ Ian thought as he forced himself back to his feet despite Jeremy's attempts to keep him down. His hands itched so bad to beat the predator out of the leader of the Rooks, he didn't. Who knew how far Jeremy's filthy hands reached? For all Ian knew beating the other boy to a bloody pulp would just result in him being sent to West Campus. He would never be able to escape with CJ, Suki, and Gabe if he ended up there. No, it was just better to pretend it never ever happened and walk away from the Rooks. Nothing, not even Gabe's smile, was worth sexual assault.

"Go to hell, Jeremy." Ian ignored the sound of the buzzing dryer as he started toward the door. He was due a couple of hours of uninterrupted sleep and at least an hour of homework time. After that, he'd figure out a way to explain it all to Gabe that didn't damage the other boy's worldview too badly.

Ian pulled on the handle of the door but to no avail; the door was locked from the outside. If he were stuck in a room with anyone else, Ian would have attributed his situation as pure bad luck. This, however, was not bad luck. With his over-sensitized preflex ability, Jeremy had seen Ian's rejection coming and planned ahead. The green-eyed sophomore reached to into his pocket for his PDA but only came up empty handed. Of all the times to accidently leave it behind in his dorm! Damn; who knew how long it would be before someone else came to this laundry room?

"Here's a tip, Archer; never tell the person who could make you or break you to 'go to hell.' It's not a good idea."

"Here's a tip for you, _Odin_. Make sure you can actually make or break someone before you use that line again. It's just in bad taste right now." Ian spun away as Jeremy attempted to lay his hands on him once more. The elder wouldn't touch him again with his mind and powers at their peak thanks to the adrenalin coursing through his veins. His temper and instincts flared up as the reality of the current situation really set in.

Jeremy laughed, sharp and clear, as he stepped back a couple steps. It wasn't a show of weakness, as Ian would have liked it to be; it was a display of how much Ian didn't scare him. "I _can_ make or break you, squab. I can make or break anyone at Tower Prep." The darker haired boy backed up a few more steps and Ian felt even more threatened despite the growing distance.

"That's a bit of an overstatement, isn't it?" Jeremy shrugged unconcerned with whether or not Ian believed him.

"Look, you don't want to complete your task, that's fine. I'll just find someone else to do it. Just know that this doesn't improve your chances of becoming a Rook."

"As if I really care about becoming a Rook," Ian scoffed and got a flash of precognition just in time to duck before Jeremy could land his punch to his face. The Rooks mattered to the elder student; they were his everything and hearing someone, especially someone as insolent as Ian fucking Archer, disregard them so casually was painful. Ian would use that weakness against him in any way possible as a distraction. The more distracted Jeremy became, the less likely he was to go back on his word and force Ian to do what he wanted. "I doubt you'll find someone to complete your "tasks" among your brothers. None of them would have any reason to."

Jeremy grinned and Ian knew he wasn't going to like what was coming.

"Oh, I don't know," Jeremy started conversationally. "Some of your pledgemates wanted to be Rooks so very badly. If I offered some of the others another chance at us if they blew me, do you really think they would turn me down? Hell, I could ask for anything and they would let me…all the while thanking me for it."

Ian wanted to say that yes, he did think they would turn him down. But he couldn't. The Rooks were supposedly key player in the world's…everything. Power made people do stupid shit. One of them might give in temptation.

"Then again," The leader of Tower Prep's only fraternity paused as if considering and the green-eyed boy felt as if ice suddenly replaced all his blood. _Please no…_

"There is another squab in the running. Thanks to your exaggerated sense of loyalty, Archer, my choices aren't as limited as they usually are." The desire to stop Jeremy from talking, amongst other things, flooded Ian's body, but the imaginary ice in his veins still froze him in his spot. The idea that something bad could happen to Gabe was bad enough. The idea that it could somehow be Ian's fault was unfathomably painful.

The silence that answered Jeremy's statement gave away Ian's weak spot just as Jeremy's reaction earlier had given him away. The elder grinned, his point proven, and stepped back into Ian's space again.

"Forrest wants to be a Rook _so_ badly. I am sure he would take care of my 'problem' for me…and with a smile too if I promised to put in a good word with my brothers. I bet he'd be fantastic at it too, don't you?" Ian flinched as Jeremy pressed further into his personal space. He knew what game the other boy was playing and there was only one way for him to win. He had to react just right to any vile words that might fall from Jeremy's mouth and find a way to flip the situation back in his favor.

"I don't know, Jeremy. I hadn't really thought about it. You apparently have though. How long have you had a crush on Gabe?"

"A crush? On Forrest? Jeremy Locke does not do crushes especially not on nerds like Gabriel Forrest." Ian could almost hear the grinding sound his teeth made as he stopped himself from defending Gabe against such slander. Jeremy leered and leaned closer to Ian's face putting them just a hair's width apart to whisper. "Nerds like him are only good as playthings. Nothing more."

That someone could think of someone else in such bald and demeaning terms made Ian's blood boil. The fact that the person with such closed-minded viewpoints was Jeremy Locke and that he was speaking about Ian's friend made it even worse. _Keep calm, Ian. Just let it go…for now. Payback is Karma's weapon of choice after all and you can certainly visit some upon him…when you are not locked inside a room with him for an undetermined amount of time. _

"I do tend to get bored easily. But, I suppose, if he's as good at blowing me as I think, I might be able to convince some of my brothers to help him out with his virginity problem."

Ian didn't think. He didn't even hesitate. He just reacted; reacted to the threat that Jeremy posed.

Punch after punch, kick after kick and suddenly Jeremy was on the ground, bloody and barely conscious. Ian stood over him for a second staring down at the other preflex student and wondered. _Why didn't he see me coming? Why didn't he block me even once_?

"You **will** stay away from Gabe. If you so much as come within 100 feet of him, a beating will be the least of your worries; do you understand me?" Jeremy nodded weakly from the floor. Ian accepted the movement for it was.

They needed to get out of this room. Jeremy probably needed to Nurse and Ian just wanted to escape the ghost of Jeremy's words. They just kept bouncing around and around, making Ian angrier.

Ian crouched and removed Jeremy's PDA from his back pocket. Normally, he would have scoffed at such a normal action, almost every guy at Tower Prep kept their PDAs in their back pockets, but then Jeremy's eyes rolled into the back of his head. Yeah, they needed to get out.

He tapped out a quick message to Gabe and hoped his friend would get here soon. He sat down beside Jeremy's unconscious form and waited.

* * *

Not five minutes later, the metal door shrieked open to reveal Gabe. The white light of the hallway made him look the part of a savior even more. It was those kind of thoughts that landed him in that situation in the first place.

"What the hell?" Ian could imagine the image he and Jeremy made and didn't blame Gabe for his tone.

Ian glanced over at Jeremy's now-sleeping form for a second before pushing himself into a standing position.

"Gabe," He started but stopped when he noticed that Gabe was no longer listening to him. The shorter boy was staring at Ian's hands with wide eyes. Ian looked down and was shocked to see the damage they had incurred. Sure, Jeremy was banged up pretty bad but Ian hadn't really thought of the damage to himself. _Weird. _He thought, _Shouldn't they hurt? _

"Go back to our room, Ian. Put your hands in your pockets and don't stop for any reason until you get there." Ian opened his mouth to object. He didn't follow commands; he gave them.

Gabe had that look on his face again though; the one that was a mixture of protectiveness, determination, and confidence. He seemed to sense the hesitation in Ian and stopped giving directions long enough to raise an eyebrow. Ian knew that look too; it was the please-don't-make-me-hypersuade-you-but-I-will-if-I-have-to look. Ian knew that he had lost the battle.

"Don't open our door for anyone, Ian. Not even CJ and Suki. Okay?" Ian nodded and handed Jeremy's PDA over to Gabe. Gabe absentmindedly took it and stuffed into the pocket of his sweatshirt. "Go Ian, now."

Ian left, all the while reeling at how hot it was when Gabe took charge for once.

* * *

It took Gabe half an hour to get to their room and Ian had paced the length of their room at least a hundred times. In a different atmosphere, his actions against Jeremy seemed…bad. He could have killed him.

He shouldn't have done that. What if he got sent to West Campus? What if he got kicked out of Tower Prep? His last principal had often called him bad news and had always threatened to expel him. Once, in his utter frustration with Ian, he had informed Ian that he would never be good for anyone. That Ian just got people's hopes up and then destroyed them. What if he was right?

If Ian got himself sent to West Campus or booted out of Tower Prep then Ian had done exactly as his old principal had said. He would have gotten CJ, Suki, and Gabe's hopes for escape and freedom up and then let them down…just like his parents.

_I am such an idiot. _

Except for the fact that Ian couldn't truly bring himself to regret his actions. Every time he tried to remember what happened his mind just kept picturing Jeremy's threat in vivid detail. He was justified in his actions. He was. Because, deep down, he knew that the elder boy's words weren't just a threat; they were a promise.

If Jeremy had left that room unscathed, he would have approached Gabe and forced himself on him. Ian knew Gabe almost better then himself and as such, he knew that, despite what the leader of the Rooks believed, Gabe would not have completed Jeremy's "task." Just as Ian had not. He suspected, however, that being rejected twice would not have gone over well with the senior student and that asshole would have used his preflex ability against Gabe and forced himself upon him.

That graphic image alone was enough to make Ian want to punch a hole through the nearest wall. But the mental torture did not stop there. He unwillingly pictured Gabe crying, bound and gagged as man after man in black robes and raven masks took their "turn" with him. It was horrible. His stomach could not handle the horror he felt and he rushed to the nearest trashcan to empty his lunch into it.

"Ian?" A hand came to rest on his shoulder blade and Ian relaxed instantly. His stomach settled down with the knowledge that Gabe was unharmed and there and safe. Safe because Ian was with him. Ian would protect him.

"Hey Gabe," Ian stood up and walked over to his bed. He really wanted to sleep; his body was just drained of all energy but one look at Gabe's face and he knew they would have to talk first if Ian wanted any peaceful sleep at all.

Gabe walked over to his wardrobe and pulled out an first-aid kit. Ian wanted to ask why Gabe would have one on hand when Nurse was not that far away, but he figured they could have that discussion later. There were obviously more pressing issues right now. Gabe stopped by his desk for a moment to grab a bowl of water and towel. Then he knelt down in front of Ian and opened the kit up beside him.

"Hands." Ian obediently held out his battered hands. Gabe looked at them for a moment before dipping the corner of the towel in the bowl. Then he took Ian's right hand and placed it on top of his own and began wiping away the half-dried blood. It hurt a bit, but not as much as it could have. Gabe was good at it; perhaps too good at it. When he had sufficiently cleaned Ian's right hand, Gabe picked up Ian's left and repeated the process. It was soothing in a way. It was nice to feel cared for again.

"So, Nurse said Jeremy will be fine. He'll be in the infirmary for a few days, but he'll be okay."

"Did she ask how he got that way?"

"I told her that I just found him there when I went to check on the availability of a washing machine."

"You shouldn't have lied, Gabe."

"Why?"

"Nurse will inform Head master, Head master will ask Whisper to pull up her footage around that time and the truth will come out."

"Whisper will have a bit of problem there." Gabe tossed the bloodied towel aside and slid the bowl of water over some so that he settle down better. "Whisper's eyes in the laundry room have been covered since initiation started, Ian. The Rooks like their privacy. They didn't want Head master to look up the laundry room footage, see who went in there frequently, and make us Squabs squeal in fear about what we know of the Rooks."

"That's not the only reason, Gabe."

"What happened, Ian?" Gabe's voice was as soft and as gentle as his hands as he cleaned Ian's battered knuckles with antiseptic cream and wrapped them in a little gauze. Ian had no idea how he was going to get out of his workout with Coach this week…without having to explain how his hands had become so damaged. "He's the Odin. The Rooks will be out for your blood now."

"I would love to see them try." Gabe dropped his hand unceremoniously and grasped his knee hard. His eyes were wide with undisguised panic. He shook his head violently in protest.

"No, Ian. You can't possibly…No. We don't even know what some of their powers are or how they got so good at them. You can't just go up against them like this. You have to lay low. You have to hide."

"I don't hide, Gabe."

"You have to, Ian." Gabe's eyes teared up a little and Ian's heart skipped a beat in his chest. It was heartbreaking; seeing someone so lively and happy-spirit so sad. "You will lose against them and I can't handle Tower Prep without you."

"You handled everything Tower Prep threw at you before." Ian pointed out. He was hesitant to believe the implications behind Gabe's words. There was no way Gabe felt as intensely about him as Ian felt about Gabe. It was impossible.

"Maybe I can't remember how to be here without you anymore."

Ian could think of nothing to say to that. Gabe's words made him feel warm and happy. Nothing he could say in response just would be right. But Gabe was honest and now Ian had to return the favor.

"He tried to use his power over me to get me to," He paused here because, while Gabe was most certainly not a girl, he was still a bit naïve and he deserved to stay that way. Ian would not be responsible for bringing anymore of the world's darkness to Gabe's door. "do something I didn't want and when I said no he started taunting me."

"Taunting you how?" Gabe asked as he finished wrapped Ian's left hand in gauze. Ian flexed it experimentally to make sure that he would be able to function in school and then allowed his favorite roommate to tape them up to secure the gauze in place. Both hands properly dressed and bound, Gabe began gathering his supplies up and placing them back in the first-aid kit.

"He threatened to make the same request of you."

Gabe paused on his way to his wardrobe once more and turned back to Ian. "I would have said no too."

"I don't think he would have allowed you to."

"Oh."

There was a moment of silence as Gabe put away the kit and closed his wardrobe again. Ian didn't push. Even as vague as he had stated it, he was sure that the idea was hard to deal with. When after a minute and half passed, however, Ian could no longer stay quiet.

"The vial things he was saying…Gabe, he was trying to make me snap. He was just unprepared when it happened."

"Why isn't there a scratch on you? Other than your knuckles, of course. He has your ability too. Why didn't he see you coming? Why didn't he defend himself?"

"I don't know," Ian admittedly honestly. "Maybe our powers only show us the future when someone has a plan for it? I wasn't really thinking about method of attack when I hit him. I just did it."

No matter the explanation, the fact Jeremy did not fight back troubled Ian. If there was a blind spot of any kind in Jeremy's ability then Ian had the same blind spot. It made Ian uneasy to think of such a possibility. He was so used to having his power working for him that the thought of it failing scared the hell out of him.

Gabe sat down beside Ian on his bed and picked his damaged left hand; he held it in both of his own and ran his thumb lightly over the tape on the four knuckles. Ian let the warm feeling this inspired washed over him and let it chase away all his worried thoughts.

"So," Gabe started his voice barely a whisper in the silence of the room. "You were defending me?" The amazement in his voice was easy for Ian to pick out and he turned looked at his best friend. Ian just nods in response because it was a rhetoric question in his opinion.

Gabe just looked at him for a second. The air buzzed with something tangible and Ian held his breath. Without any further hesitation, Gabe leaned forward and closing the distance between them, but he stopped a few centimeters away. He was giving Ian an out, a chance to say no.

Ian smiled a little and moved the short distance to meet Gabe's lips.

The Rooks initiation was half nightmare, half sweet dream for Ian.


End file.
